I've posted more background info on the situation in other subs, if anyone wants go through the post history on this throwaway account. Here I'm hoping for advice on how exactly collections agencies work and what checks they do before they start harassing people.
I have a few questions. What can a collection agency actually do? Do they perform checks to make sure the debt is legitimate? Would they consider my situation to be a legitimate reason to try and collect from me? Does my landlord have to first prove to the collection agency that he is owed a debt? Can I reason with them and tell them I've already paid most of the amount they want, and that we were never shown proof of the bills, and that the bill isn't even due yet? I am here on a student visa; will this affect future visa/green card applications? How will it affect my credit score, and is there a way to recover my credit score if I'm in the right? What if my landlord is telling the truth, has refused to send us the bills just to fuck with us, and is able to prove that he's telling the truth to the collections agency who will then collect the debt?
Background:
Long story short, my landlord is attempting to charge me for September's utility bills (that are in his name) twice. He's never sent us the actual utility bills, but has sent us screenshots of the charges to his bank for October and November (but not September). We've already paid the bills for July-September even though we've never seen it, because he just sends an email that says "you owe $x" and we naively trusted him. We said we think you're overcharging us. He refused to send us proof to prove us wrong. We said we're not paying any more utility bills until you send us proof of all the bills from the beginning of the lease up until now, including the ones we've already paid.
We then receive an email from him with the following line: "Friday 18 December is the deadline for you paying your utility bills. This is a full 17 days since I sent you the bill. If you fail to pay your utility bill by this Friday, I will give you a final written warning. Then I will hand this over to a collection agency to collect the money, which will result in your credit score being negatively impacted."
- The lease states that utility payments are due on the first of the month after we are provided with the invoice. We were provided the invoice on Dec 2, so the payment is due Jan 1. This is crystal clear.
- We dispute the amount he says we owe for this month, because we believe (and are 99% certain) that we were double charged. He has had plenty of time to prove us wrong, but hasn't.
Submitted December 17, 2020 at 12:32AM by snowaway--- https://ift.tt/3mrCzxJ
